(a.k.a. Berana Stormbringer)
"Follow the path of desire within your heart. Should it harm none, or should it harm many, do as you wish."
Physical Appearance & Manifestations
While one might think that being the God of Chaos would mean they are ever shifting and changing, this is not entirely true. Berana does indeed manifest in a multitude of fashions with no apparent pattern to what they choose to be at any given moment. Any race and any gender, even plants, animals, rocks. Anything is possible with Berana. However, Berana does have a form that seems to be near and dear to them, for this form has been depicted in many tapestries over the years, described in both song and story.
Regardless of male or female, it can be hard to tell which they might have chosen at any one point and they often appear as either, when they are in this form. One thing remains clear that they often take the form of a human. The face seems to blend the features naturally found in both lending them an androgyny. They are often tall and lean, and their skin is a medium brown with irregular patches of lighter to white skin. Their hair is often long, but always wild and unkempt in and a dark black with deep purple highlights. Their left eye is always a deep blue and their right eye is always a brilliant red.
In this recurring form they are most often seen wearing a chiton of black with a thin white band around the bottom of it; the material and the style of how it is worn can and does often vary. They wear a pearlescent belt that seems to be fashioned from the scales of some unknown creature. A chlamys style cloak completes their attire, this cloak always an eye jarring patchwork of dozens upon dozens of differently colored pieces of fabric, fastened with a silver broach.
Personality & Philosophies
Berana is, naturally, hard to pin down for their moods change and shift with their whims. What can be said of Berana is that they are neither good, nor are they evil. They are capable of both in equal measure. They are the embodiment of Chaos itself, and as such contains everything, every possibility. Berana is often unpredictable, taken by flights of fancy and strong sudden desires and whims, which are often acted on immediately. They detest being bored and are always seeking new entertainment, new joys to experience. They delight in causing chaos, unsurprisingly, and confusion in their wake for any reason or none. They are fond of twisting people, events, items, even places and mocking those who believe too strongly in order. At their heart, they are a willful and capricious God.
Berana is seen by a great many people, including some of the Gods, as an antagonist, someone to fight and rail against for a stable and normal world. While it seems counterintuitive, nothing could be farther from the truth. Berana does not desire mass destruction or the ending of all things. Nothingness is so terribly boring, they have seen it before, they are not a fan. Instead Berana simply desires for things to not stagnate and calcify, to have a world of interest and fun. In a way despite being the oldest of the Gods, Berana acts the youngest and most childlike. Nothing is ever satisfactory to Berana, at least not for too long. Eventually they will get bored and move on to find something new to occupy their time with.
Powers & Magical Artifacts
Berana’s powers, of course, lay within Chaos itself and Chaos is all things, all at once. Berana’s powers are, quite possibly, without limits, though it would require them to focus for long enough which is the problem. Berana is capable of constructive and destructive displays, of bringing darkness and illumination. They can even bring order to bear, though never for long and the act of doing so can cause them to lash out and destroy the very order they have brought into being, so deep is the animosity between them and Yshirea. Berana’s powers mostly manifest in the upheaval of well-ordered plans or systems, in the skewing of what should happen and, in the twisting, the mutation of what has long been into something new and different.
Berana’s cloak, the patchwork affront to all sight everywhere, is a potent artifact imbued with a portion of their power. It is known as The Cloak of Misrule and allows them to not only become anything they desire but also to seamlessly fit into the world with none the wiser. While wearing the cloak they inhabit whatever form they have chosen, and the world and the people around remember them as this new person. The world makes room for them in all ways, allowing them to inhabit this new persona and cause mischief and chaos.
Followers & Organizations
The largest organization dedicated to Berana is of course The Discordant Legion, a mercenary group who will take any job; they are highly effective at what they do but can be prone to unpredictable behavior, such as quitting or switching loyalty to your enemy. Despite this, their capabilities and reasonable prices keep them in business. It should come as no surprise to any that this group began at the behest of Berana themselves, to serve as a mockery of the Chorus of Harmony.
While Berana’s worshippers, priests, and clerics, can be found just about everywhere they seem to have no real hierarchy or structure. Seem being the operative word here as there must be one for them to function at all. There is a temple to Berana located in the depths of a mountain cavern on an island floating within the Twisting Sea. As most temples are meant to act as central governing bodies over the faithful, having it be in such a hard-to-reach place makes pilgrimages and really any type of governing nearly impossible. And yet governing of a sort still happens for the wandering clerics of Berana often carry news and orders all over.
Generally, where you can find priests of Berana are in small houses of worship, often located in towns and cities but equally able to be found in random places. Shrines to Berana are almost always found in unlikely places; the middle of a forest, part way down a sewer tunnel, tucked into the stall of a horse at a stable or hidden away behind a secret door in a ruined keep as a few examples. In almost all cases the presence of a shrine in an unhelpful place often comes without warning and those who fear reprisal from Berana do not move the shrine but instead find ways to work around it.
Holidays & Services
There is a period of celebration devoted to Berana known as The Shambles, which occurs every year between one Chaos Day and the next. The first Shambles happened during the 2nd of Beras and the 16th of Beras and was overseen by Berana themselves. Since then, it has been a regular yearly occurrence, though the exact time each year seems to be chosen at the whim of Berana. Those who worship them simply know upon waking up that day that The Shambles has begun. This strange celebration of chaos has those who worship the God truly giving their lives over to chaos for the duration. Pranks are played, mockery is made, tables are turned, and upheaval and confusion are sown in the wakes of the men and women who follow Berana’s dance. Sometimes, depending on what is going on in the region, it can be several days into the celebrations before those who are not taking part in them realize that the Shambles are happening.
A large portion of Berana’s followers is nestled within the ranks of the Discordant Legion and as such priests and clerics will often be found where you find them. The mercenary nature of the group has led to several services unique to the group. Many of them have, upon reaching a certain level of prestige within the Legion, taken part in a ritual where they are tattooed with Berana’s symbol while others who already bear the mark watch on. It is almost an uncharacteristically solemn event of worship. Member of the Legion often consider their lives lived in chaos as a form of offering to Berana, one which they believe pleases their God. Many who worship Berana take it upon themselves to perform random acts as the whim takes them. These acts could be of good or of evil, should one put titles to them. But they are always unplanned and spurred on by a moment’s thought. Suddenly gifting a poor man or woman with gold and clothing or helping them to get a job or get back up on their feet. A decision to steal a trinket or break off a long-held relationship just because the idea crossed their minds. While not as numerous as the worshippers of other Gods, those who worship Berana tend to be predisposed to a chaotic outlook on life.
Stories & Myths
The stories and myths of Berana are as wide and varied as the God themselves, beginning of course with the Tapestry of Creation where The Weaver wove Berana from dozens upon dozens of scraps of thread left over from the creation of Existence. Berana’s hand was present in creation of Humans. If any race upon Ashiel could be said to be Berana’s, it is Humans. Even so Berana’s hand is also evident in the creation of Dwarves, Gnisse, Orcs and Halflings. Berana is one of the key players during the creation of the Younger Gods, their actions directly or indirectly causing several of the Younger Gods to be born. Their place within the Breaking of the World is well known for even today they are known as Berana Stormbringer.
There are lesser stories and myths of Berana which also illustrate the ways in which they can be helpful or harmful depending on their mood that day. One such tale, long since forbidden with the lands of Ordina, tells of how Berana pretended to be Yshirea for a time and made a grand farce of The Chorus of Harmony. This story is considered heresy and untrue by the Chorus. Another story speaks of the time Berana spent twelve mortal years in a deep forest as a great boar, protecting and raising a lost child until the child was found and taken in. One story that has been made into song tells of a day when Berana made themselves mortal and lived a normal life for a single day, just to see what it was like.
Mental characteristics
Gender Identity
Genderfluid.
Sexuality
Pansexual.
Divine Classification
Elder God
Alignment
Chaotic Neutral
Church/Cult
Children
Eyes
Left eye blue, right eye red
Hair
Long, black hair with purple highlights
Height
5'11"
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